Multicast multipathing in an overlay network

Abstract

The subject technology addresses a need for improving utilization of network bandwidth in a multicast network environment. More specifically, the disclosed technology provides solutions for extending multipathing to tenant multicast traffic in an overlay network, which enables greater bandwidth utilization for multicast traffic. In some aspects, nodes in the overlay network can be connected by virtual or logical links, each of which corresponds to a path, perhaps through many physical links, in the underlying network.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system comprising:
 one or more processors; 
 a network interface coupled to the one or more processors; and 
 a non-transitory memory coupled to the one or more processors, the non-transitory memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
 receive, over the network interface, a packet for distributing to a set of receivers in a network; 
 perform a hash operation on at least a portion of the packet to determine a hash key; 
 select a forwarding value based at least on the hash key; and 
 concatenate the forwarding value with a group value to yield a concatenated value. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , comprising further instructions for hash operations, which when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
 encapsulate the packet with the concatenated value and the forwarding value to yield an encapsulated packet; and 
 forward the encapsulated packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the network. 
 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the packet is received by a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel end point (VTEP) in the network. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the hash operation is performed on at least one of an IP destination address or an IP source address in an IP header of the packet, information in an layer 2 (L2) header, or information in the packet indicating a user datagram protocol (UDP) port number or a transmission control protocol (TCP) port number. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein,
 the forwarding value is associated with a multicast distribution tree, and 
 the multicast distribution tree is selected from a plurality of multicast distribution trees in the network. 
 
 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the concatenated value comprises an address. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 6 , wherein the forwarding value comprises a lower four bits of a header field including the concatenated value. 
     
     
       8. A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, over a network interface, a packet for distributing to a set of receivers in a network; 
 performing a hash operation on at least a portion of the packet to determine a hash key; 
 selecting a forwarding value based at least on the hash key; and 
 concatenating a group value with the forwarding value to yield a concatenated value. 
 
     
     
       9. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 encapsulating the packet with the concatenated value and the forwarding value to yield an encapsulated packet; and 
 forwarding the encapsulated packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the network. 
 
     
     
       10. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the packet is received by a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel end point (VTEP) in the network. 
     
     
       11. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the hash operation is performed on at least one of an IP destination address or an IP source address in an IP header of the packet, information in an layer 2 (L2) header, or information in the packet indicating a user datagram protocol (UDP) port number or a transmission control protocol (TCP) port number. 
     
     
       12. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein a multicast distribution tree is selected from a plurality of multicast distribution trees in the network. 
     
     
       13. The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the concatenated value comprises an address. 
     
     
       14. The computer-implemented method of  claim 13 , wherein the forwarding value comprises a lower four bits of a header field including the concatenated value. 
     
     
       15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions stored therein that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to:
 receive, over a network interface, a packet for distributing to a set of receivers in a network; 
 perform a hash operation on at least a portion of the packet to determine a hash key; 
 select a forwarding tag (FTAG) value based at least on the hash key, wherein the FTAG value is associated with a multicast distribution tree in the network; and 
 concatenate a group value with the FTAG value to yield a concatenated value. 
 
     
     
       16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , comprising further instructions for hash operations, which when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
 encapsulate the packet with the concatenated value and the FTAG value to yield an encapsulated packet; and 
 forward the encapsulated packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the network. 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the packet is received by a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel end point (VTEP) in the network. 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the hash operation is performed on at least one of an IP destination address or an IP source address in an IP header of the packet, information in an layer 2 (L2) header, or information in the packet indicating a user datagram protocol (UDP) port number or a transmission control protocol (TCP) port number. 
     
     
       19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the multicast distribution tree is selected from a plurality of multicast distribution trees in the network. 
     
     
       20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the concatenated value comprises an address.